In February former MK Michael (Mickey) Eaton couldn’t prepare himself, barely spoke, and spent most of his time contemplating how to die from Parkinson’s disease with his body and mind a dignified death.
Months later he speaks clearly, the tremors in his hands have subsided and he leads an active life, jogging, playing football in the park and drinking coffee after undergoing a rare, but risky surgery to treat his symptoms. Meeting friends at shops has resumed.
Eaton, 77, who served for 28 years as a Likud legislator and as a government minister, shared his journey with Channel 12 to raise awareness of the disease and the potential benefits of deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. documented.
Eaton, who was known during his years as MK for his sharp wit and oratory skills – once speaking for more than 10 hours during a cassette filibuster – was diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago.
While the most noticeable effects are tremors and a tilted stance, patients with Parkinson’s often lose control of their primary and secondary motor skills, suffer from vision, bladder and sleep issues, and eventually lose their memories. and slip into dementia.
As symptoms progressed, from hand tremors to slowness of actions, thought, and speech, Eaton began to withdraw from the world.
“I stopped going out of the house, because I didn’t want to be the thing nobody likes, be a source of pity,” he said. “It’s not a good feeling when someone knows you as someone who would stand on a stage, and now you have nothing, you can’t speak, or a child of 4,5, or 6. You can speak like that.”
MK Michael Eaton attends a session at the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem on November 24, 2008. (Michael Fatal/Flash 90)
Eaton took 30 minutes to unbutton the shirt and couldn’t dress himself at all. He and his wife, Karine Nahon, a professor of informatics, began looking for new treatment options.
His condition was so dire that he even told a lot about death.
Former MK Michael Eaton struggles to take off a coat shortly after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s (screencapture/Channel 12)
Nahon said, “I began to feel he was disappearing—as if he was no more.”
“Of course we started talking about death, when they tell you you might be dead in a year or two,” Eaton said.
“He was always trying to prepare himself for the worst: ‘How will I die with dignity, will I be placed in an institution, what kind of institution, in what situation can they take me off life support? ” Nahon remembers.
That’s when he met Professor Avinom Reches of Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem, who suggested he try DBS surgery, where electrodes are inserted into a targeted area of the brain.
While not offering a cure, DBS can help patients lead more normal lives. DBS, which includes psychiatric and neurological treatment based on electrical stimulation, is one of the main treatment methods today for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and other motor disorders associated with Parkinson’s, such as tremors, muscle stiffness, and movement difficulties.
This procedure was first performed in 1993 and was approved by the FDA in 2002 as a treatment for Parkinson’s. In Israel, the procedure entered the health basket in 2004. However, its use is still not widespread due to the risks involved in implanting electrodes. Brain.
“Everyone told us ‘don’t do that,’ including the neurologists who said ‘it’s dangerous, they open your mind and play with it,'” Nahon said.
However, Eaton was determined to move on.
“Worst case scenario I’ll die, so what? It was no longer a punishment for me,” Eaton said. “If I can get a few more good years, why shouldn’t I do it?” he said.
Former MK Michael Eaton before Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery to treat his Parkinson’s symptoms (Screencapture/Channel 12)
Eaton had an 8-hour surgery in February and it was an almost instant success, with doctors saying they could now place the electrodes to a precision of a fraction of a millimeter.
The next day, he walked straight out of the hospital, the characteristic humpback posture was gone.
After a week, the tremors subsided, his speech improved. Two weeks later he shaved himself with a blade for the first time in four years.
Four months after the operation, Eaton and his wife are sitting in a cafe in Ramat Gan. He confidently orders a coffee, opens a pack of sugar, stirs it in and picks up the hot drink without jerking or difficulty, something he said he could not have imagined several months ago.
Former MK Michael Eaton adds sugar to a cup of coffee four months after brain surgery to help him relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. (Screencapture/Channel 12)
His fluency is back when discussing politics. He jogs and plays football with his brother-in-law in a nearby park. He also plays paddleball with his wife on the beach.
During the interview, he is clear to emphasize that DBS is not a cure-all and that the disease is on the rise.
They also have to go to regular appointments, where doctors recalculate electrical signals via an impulse generator battery (such as a pacemaker) that is implanted under their collar bone and connects to the doctor’s device via Bluetooth.
However, Eaton said that after his years of public service, it was important for him to bring his story to the public.
Former MK Michael Eaton kicked a soccer ball to relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease four months after brain surgery. (Screencapture/Channel 12)
“I wanted to give this interview to raise this issue on the public agenda, to make Parkinson’s patients aware of this surgery option,” Eaton said. “You can achieve results that can transform people like me from depressed to active, significantly prolonging their lives and leading a good life.”